The Cherokees, already sorely tried, were yet to
undergo a more severe test. Their nation had been harassed by distractions
from without. It now came to suffer dissentions within the body politic.

In 1828 Whitepath, a full-blood of the conservative
type, had beaded a rebellion against the new government and against the
Christian religion which was at this time winning many converts. The
Cherokee government succeeded in putting it down without serious trouble or
bloodshed, and the leaders became reconciled to the new order of things,
Whitepath becoming a member of Council under the constitution. A few
irreconcilables remained, however, to become the nucleus of a party
favorable to emigration. William Hicks joined them when be became estranged
and embittered by his political defeat, and used what influence he possessed
in adding recruits to the malcontents. This discontented group fell a ready
prey to the machinations of designing white men. Benjamin F. Curry, sent by
the Federal Government at the dictation of Georgia, to open enrolling
agencies in the Cherokee Nation, together with his assistants, all
Georgians, had lost no time in making friends of them. Another factor was
added to the situation the same year when Wilson Lumpkin succeeded to the
governorship of Georgia, with the fixed determination to force removal.
Thoroughly familiar with the Indian situation, having spent the winter of
1825-26 in the Cherokee Nation as a member of the board of public works,
when he visited and conversed with all the prominent men of the tribe, he
had already laid the foundation for the influence he was prepared to wield
for removal. Federal and state officials joined forces, halting at no means
or method to accomplish their purpose. By resorting to bribery and intrigue
the most disgraceful, and manipulations the most subtle, they succeeded in
detaching some of the most prominent and some of the strongest men of the
Cherokee Nation from their own government and building up a faction
favorable to removal. The factional breach, once started, kept growing
broader, and the removal project grew correspondingly brighter.

Georgia had anticipated important results from her law
forbidding the Cherokees to hold assemblies within her limits. Omission of
the Council to assemble was expected completely to demoralize the Cherokee
government which was preparing to appoint a new delegation to Washington,
and leave its citizens at the mercy of the Federal Government and the state.
An attempt to meet would be considered by Georgia an infringement of her
law, and would give the Georgia Guard an excuse for arresting and haling to
prison the leaders of the Cherokees. Chiefs Ross and Hicks were in favor of
holding the regular session of the Council at New Echota, regardless of
consequences. They were overruled, however, in a preliminary meeting of the
Council, the argument prevailing that they would inevitably be attacked by
the Georgia Guard and, as the people would not see their chiefs and
representatives dragged away ignominously without resistance, the
consequences would be disastrous. Chatooga, Alabama, an old camp meeting
ground, was chosen as the meeting place of the General Council of 1831. Here
rude sheds were made by laying rough boards on poles supported by forked
stakes driven into the ground, while logs arranged in rows furnished benches
for council and judges, as well as for the great crowd of people, who,
according to ancient custom, were in attendance. Chatooga proved too remote
from the main body of the tribe, however, and Red Clay in southern
Tennessee, was chosen as the place of the next meeting. This continued to be
the capital as long as the Cherokees remained in the East.

The terms for which the chiefs and members of the
legislature were elected expired at the close of the first session of the
Council held at Red Clay. According to the constitution, a new election
would take place the following summer, before the next meeting of Council.
Inasmuch as the confusion caused by the Georgia laws prevented elections in
the regular manner, the Council referred the question to the people. They
called a convention forthwith on the council ground and representatives from
the different districts were chosen from among those present. This
convention passed a resolution continuing in office "the present national
executive, legislative and judicial officials, the same being the people's
last choice." Until elections could be held constitutionally, vacancies were
to be filled by the principal chief, subject to the approval of the upper
house.

The action of the convention was far from gratifying
to the Ridges and their friends who were beginning to lose favor with the
Cherokee Council on account of rumors of disaffection and leanings toward
removal. Friendly association with removal agents gave color to thee
reports, and John Ridge was impeached by the Council on complaints filed by
his own district, on the ground that he no longer represented the opinion of
the district. Major Ridge and David Vann were next impeached for advancing
policies contrary to those of the majority. No trial was ever held, it being
the chief's policy to avoid arousing antagonism, and all three resigned.
Elias Boudinot resigned from the editorship of the Phoenix, in 1832, because
Mr. Ross discouraged a free discussion of the removal policy, and with the
Ridges and Vans went over to the opposition, which had gained a sufficient
following by 1835 to organize a party with Wm. Hicks as principal chief and
John McIntosh second chief. A legislature was appointed and steps were taken
to supplant the existing government. Dissenters arose in their own ranks,
however, and a large number of them emigrated. Among those left behind were
the Ridges, Boudino't, Vann and Andrew Ross.

The two Ridges and Boudinot, because of their superior
ability and influence, soon became recognized as leaders of the opposition
party, both by the Cherokees and the Cherokees and the Federal authorities.
Of Major Ridge and his nephew, Elias Boudinot, some account has been given
in preceding chapters. John Ridge, educated in New England, was a young man
of great promise, handsome, brilliant and ambitious. After completing his
education he returned with his Connecticut bride to the Cherokee Nation to
enter, with all the ardor and enthusiasm of confident youth, into the
political and social life of the tribe. His superior education, his
eloquence, his distinguished appearance, enhanced by his taste for handsome
apparel in which his father's wealth permitted him to indulge, his fondness
for distinction and power, all characteristics of the young men of the
ruling class throughout the south, gave him the reputation of being the most
promising young man of the Cheroked Nation. When in 1832 he and Elias
Boudinot made a tour of the east, addressing enthusiastic audiences in New
York and Boston on the condition of their people, all who heard him were
impressed with his gentlemanly bearing and stirring eloquence.

Young Ridge naturally desired and expected some day to
occupy the highest position which his government had to offer. His political
career began auspiciously when he became a member of the National Committee,
of which his father was president, his popularity and reputation for tribal
patriotism reaching its zenith when he brought to bear all his influence for
the renewal of a law, the provisions of which had been drafted by his
father, making it a death penalty for any person or group of persons to sell
Cherokee land without the consent of the Council. As long as there was any
hope of attaining the chieftainship, the way to which was temporarily
blocked by the superior Influence of a man, In some respects, seemingly
inferior to him, Ridge was content to bide his time. But when the Council of
1831 made John Ross chief executive indefinitely, Ridge saw his chances of
political advancement utterly blocked unless the uncertainty of the times
should work some change more advantageous to his prospects. Little by little
an estrangement grew up between Ross and Ridge with his coterie of friends
and admirers, which government and state agents eagerly seized upon. The
Ridges hitherto had consistently opposed emigration. Now they began to look
upon it more favorably. Readjustment in a new country might give them the
political opportunity which would be denied them indefinitely in the east.

But the motives that prompted them were not altogether
selfish and personal. They were men of honor and patriotism, conscious of
the possibilities of the misuse of power concentrated in the hands of one
man with strong political backing, with unlimited tenure of office and the
control of the purse strings. To be sure the purse was now empty, but it
would not always be so; when the annuities were paid the money could be used
greatly to the advantage and profit of those in control of the government.
Some of these men of the opposition party were undoubtedly high-minded,
far-sighted men who, honestly convinced that their people could never be
restored to peace and happiness in the east, and seeing the futility of
further resisting the Federal Government, took what appealed to them as the
only way out of the difficulty. They now came out boldly against the Ross
party and worked openly for removal.

Thus, before it had been launched three years, the
very existence of the Cherokee republic was being threatened from within and
without. No one appreciated its situation more keenly than the captain of
the small craft of state who, bent all his energy to the task of quelling
the mutiny on board while weathering the tempest steadily growing darker and
fiercer without, threatening to overwhelm him and his people in shipwreck
and ruin.

Appealing to his people, as well as to a higher power
than his own or theirs, he issued a proclamation recommending July
nineteenth, to be observed as a day of fasting and prayer throughout the
Cherokee Nation. The proclamation declared, "We have need to go to the Ruler
of the Universe in this day of deep affliction. We have been too long
trusting to an arm of flesh which has proved to be but a broken reed," and
whether the time of tribulation and sorrow through which they were passing
was caused by the wanton depravity and wickedness of man, or by the
unsearchable and mysterious will of a wise Providence, it equally became
them as a rational and Christian community humbly to bow in humiliation.

Many responded to the call, and on the day appointed,
age and youth, middle age and childhood, repaired to camp meeting grounds,
to convenient groves or dwellings, and fasted and prayed. The occasion was
profoundly dignified and impressive, and doubtless helped to strengthen the
Christian fortitude and forbearance exercised by even the most lawless
members of the tribe during the trying months that followed.

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